Tuesday, April 02, 2013

Death by Tiger: It Happened in 1899 in Washington, DC

When one begins to explore the “cause of death” among the 65,000
interred at Congressional Cemetery, your imagination begins to recreate the
ultimate demise from myriad illnesses, murders, train wrecks, auto accidents,
drownings and the like.But one really stood
out to me recently: an 1899 death “by tiger bite.” The cemetery is also competing for a share of $1M from AmEx and the NTHP until May 10, 2013 by popular vote.

How was that possible in Washington, DC?Well, the Wallace Circus was in town, and so
were its many animals.21-year-old
Charles Siegert was in charge of the shows ponies, but developed a strange and
dangerous habit of sleeping on top of the tiger cage, which ultimately led to
his demise.As he slept atop a Bengal
tiger named “Old Ben” the evening of September 4, 1899, he turned in his sleep shortly
after 1:30 am and his leg dropped down the side of the cage.The Washington
Post reported:

A Wallace Circus animal cage

“The beast appears
to have put out one great paw through the bars, and with its long, sharp teeth
clutched Siegert’s leg.Siegert felt the
horrible grip on his leg, realized what had happened, and, as the tiger pulled
his leg into the cage, Siegert was dragged over its side.The beast had his calf between its teeth and
Siegert’s body caught at the knee of the imprisoned foot and hung full in reach
of the tiger.His cries awakened the
whole tent and while men ran to his assistance the other animals roared and
growled at the uproar.Torches were
pushed at the tiger; employees who were familiar with similar accidents got
clubs and pushed them hard against the tiger’s nose.He hung on till his own pain caused the grip
of his teeth to relax and the instant they did so Siegert was pulled away.His wounds were hastily dressed and the
police notified.”

Siegert,
ironically a butcher by trade, had joined the circus just eleven weeks before,
when it rolled out of Tolleston, Indiana.He had endured the horrible accident for a full ten minutes.He was taken to Emergency Hospital, where the
reality of his wound was revealed.The
Post described that “part of the calf had been torn away, and at the knee and the
exposed bone showed indentations of the great teeth of the beast.Muscles, sinews, and flesh hung in ribbons
from the great wound.”

An employee of the
circus visited the hospital, but it was reported that he had no interest in
Siegert, and coldly announced that he was only there to reclaim the bloodied
quilt which had been wrapped around Siegerts leg.

Surgeons initially
thought they could sew the wound back together, but eventually, at 8 pm on
September 5, 1899, the leg was amputated below the knee by William P.
Carr.The stress, blood loss, and
infection took Siegerts life just five hours later, at 1 am on September 6th.

As they say in the business, “the show must go on,”
and the Wallace Circus pulled out of town that morning.Little was known about his family, and after
several days of local media attention, a local insurance man named Robert Cook
took pity on the situation, purchased and buried him in Congressional Cemetery
on September 7th.The site
remains unmarked to this day (at Site 130/Range 250).

A week later, the circus finally located his father
Julius G. Siegert in La Porte, Indiana (who had been born in Russia about
1847), and sent him a telegram about the death of his son.He wrote a letter to the Washington Post which was received on September 12, offering to pay
for his son’s internment, but the funeral had already taken place.

If you want to assist in creating a marker, now is you chance! The cemetery has a kickstarter project where you can contribute, vote on a design, and finally get a monument installed at the site. Think of the design possibilities! Be part of the process HERE.

The Wallace Circus

Benjamin Wallace,
a livery stable owner from Peru, Indiana, and his business partner, James Anderson,
bought a circus in 1884 and created "The Great Wallace Show."The show gained some prominence when their
copyright for advertising posters was upheld by the Supreme Court in the Bleistein
v. Donaldson Lithographing Company case.

Wallace bought out his partner in 1890 and formed the
"B. E. Wallace Circus.”It later
merged with another circus and became the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus.

In 1913, the circus lost 8 elephants, 21 lions, 8
horses and several tigers in the Wabash River flood. Its unknown if one of the tigers drowned included
"Big Ben," the Bengal that killed Charles Siegert.

Another tragedy struck the circus just before 4:00
a.m. on June 22, 1918, when a locomotive engineer fell asleep and ran his empty
troop train into the rear of the circus train near Hammond, Indiana. A fire broke out and quickly spread through
the wooden sleeping cars. 86 persons
died and another 127 were injured, with many victims were burned beyond
recognition. Most are buried in Woodlawn
Cemetery in Forest Park, Illinois in a section set aside as Showmen's Rest,
marked by large elephant memorials.

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About Me

Paul K. Williams is the President of Historic Congressional Cemetery, and is also the proprietor of Kelsey & Associates, "The House History People," a small firm that specializes in creating a genealogy for a house or building; we research who built it and when, who designed it, who has owned it, and who has lived there and what they did for a living. We focus on the houses in Washington, DC and some other communities across the United States. I've published 19 books with Arcadia, History Press, and Anova Books on neighborhoods in
Washington and my hometown of Skaneateles, NY...titles below. We've
sold more than 45,000 to date! We're publishing Modern SW DC in the fall of 2016, and we are working on a "How to Research Your House History" book.
I've been the author of the popular "Scenes of the Past" column for the
InTowner newspaper beginning in April of 2001.
Visit us at www.WashingtonHistory.com